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Writing a Persuasive Paper
Alexander Sipos Professor Loudon English 101 10/7/2014 = Writing a Persuasive Essay = Intro Everyone wants other people to agree with them right? The way to get people to see things the way you do is through persuasion. One effective way to get your point across is by using persuasive writing. Every good persuasive piece has the same key factors. The reason one would write a persuasive essay would be to persuade others to consider their point or opinion obviously. So the first thing you would want to do is choose a stance. Once the stance has been established, support that claim with reasons and evidence. Ensure that you have a good grip on whom you will be writing for. Make sure your paper has a good structure. Have a few counter arguments made up. All of these factors play an important role in creating a solid persuasive paper that will achieve exactly what it is designed to, persuade. Develop Stance At the start of every persuasive piece, choose a side. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Make sure that it is very clear what you think of the topic. State your opinion right from the get-go so that there is no room for confusion among the readers. This makes it easy for the reader to understand your point and begin to sympathize with you. Once you develop your stance, stick to it. Any variance from your view will cause readers to question what you’ve already said and make them less willing to side with you. Adjust For Audience The whole idea of writing a persuasive paper is to convince people to agree with your point(s). Therefore you need to pay extra special attention to your audience. Attune all of your ideas and reasons to interest the people that are reading your paper. If you are writing about a sport, include things that apply to people that play that sport. For example, if it is about soccer, talk about the world cup or major league teams from soccer like Brazil. Don’t include things that are irrelevant to soccer such as the Super Bowl. That would be counter-productive and detract from the value of your paper. Support Claims When you know who you’re writing for and what kind of opinion you’ll form on the subject you need to back up your views. Give solid, dependable reasons for picking this stance. No one will spontaneously change their opinion just because. They need enough information and evidence to overturn whatever they previously thought. So you want your reasons to be relevant and 100% valid. Otherwise there isn’t much substance to your paper. Make sure to supply plenty of sources to back up your paper. You want your audience to have no reason whatsoever to doubt any of the points you make. Create Counterarguments Playing off of that last point, most people will have a few reasons to oppose your view. So with this in mind have several counterarguments prepared. This will leave the reader with no reasons to continue to disagree with you. It makes a world of difference to include opposing points and yet disprove them. Your paper will seem well rounded because you acknowledge opposing points and also show how they are wrong or misguided. This makes those points obsolete and reaffirms that you do indeed know what you’re talking about. It helps out considerably to do research into opposing views so that you can tackle the main points they try to make. Structure After you find all of the information you need to make a good case for your view, and have counter arguments for the people who try to claim otherwise, you then can organize your paper. Structure your paper in such a way that each of your points flow into each other and make perfect sense in this order. You want the reader to be able to get through your piece as easily as possible, with minimum confusion. If your paper is well organized it makes it a whole lot more appealing for readers. They will be more likely to stick with you throughout the entire paper, thus getting all of your viewpoints across at optimum efficiency. Closing If you can come up with an essay that fulfills each of these recommendations rest assured your paper will be a superior persuasive piece. I’ve compiled this information throughout years of schooling, through my various English class professors, and numerous Textbooks including my most recent book, Lunsford Et Al’s “Everyone’s An Author With Readings.” If you seek further instruction or information I suggest you visit the Purdue OWL website. I wish you good luck on all future endeavors.